How I Hunted Down Girona’s Real Heroes This Season
Right, so this popped up on my feed yesterday – everyone going wild about Girona’s amazing season, but honestly, I couldn’t name three of their best guys off the top of my head. I like keeping tabs on La Liga surprises, so figured, why not dig in myself and actually document it properly? Here’s how it went down.
Started simple: opened the match reports for their last five or six La Liga games. Wasn’t aiming for crazy stats yet, just wanted to see whose names kept popping up naturally. You know, the guys consistently mentioned in key moments, goals, assists, MOTM shouts in quick articles… not just the top scorers list. Fired up the laptop Saturday morning with a coffee, just casually browsing different league summaries. Kept my notebook open, scribbling “Michel” obviously, but wanted the players.
My notebook quickly got messy: Savio, Tsyhankov, Dovbyk, Aleix Garcia… tons of names floating around! Needed more than just match blurbs. So, I opened another tab for player ratings across multiple sites – who were the journalists consistently giving high marks week after week? This felt more like peeling back layers. Savio (sometimes labeled “Savinho” which, confusing) seemed nearly ever-present near the top. Dovbyk was obviously scoring, but the ratings showed people thought his overall play was key too.
Then came the slightly obsessive phase. Lunch break was basically me cross-referencing wildly. Whoscored heat maps? Peeked. FBref radar charts comparing their midfielders? You bet. Stats under pressure? Pass accuracy in the final third? I wasn’t looking for “who has highest anything” necessarily, more like “who shows up consistently across different metrics, plus the eye test from highlights.” Kept replaying those clips people post online – watching Aleix Garcia ping passes under pressure suddenly made more sense looking at his high progressive passing numbers.
The fan communities sealed it. Hopped onto some Girona fan forums and La Liga Discord channels late Sunday. Lurking quietly (mostly!), just absorbing who the regular match-goers were constantly praising beyond the obvious goalscorer. Who made them feel confident when on the ball? Whose absence would genuinely worry them? “Savio scares defenses” kept popping up. People raving about Dovbyk’s movement, not just the finishes. And Garcia? Loads of comments like “Garcia is the metronome, we fall apart without him controlling it.” Stats + highlights + fan passion – that’s the trifecta.
Putting it all together, comparing my messy notes from the week, here’s my final top 3 list:
- Artem Dovbyk: Obviously. The goals (like, 25% of their whole league tally!), yes. But digging in showed it’s not just poaching. His movement pulling defenders apart? Massive. Link-up play strong? Stats back it up. You miss him, they miss goals and shape. Pure number 9 beast.
- Savio: The winger chaos king on loan. Fbref had his dribbling numbers looking ridiculous – genuinely elite. Seeing the highlights, that pace and trickery explained it. Goals + assists impressive, but the underlying fear he puts in defenders week in, week out felt quantifiable via his underlying numbers. Creates so much space just by existing.
- Aleix Garcia: The “glue guy” MVP. Initially less flashy than the others, but deeper stats blew my mind. Consistently near the top in the whole league for passes, progressive passes, passes into final third. Heat maps showed him everywhere centrally. Fans stressed his importance constantly. Controls tempo, recovers balls, makes everyone else function. Engine room.
Took way longer than just reading a listicle, but actually going through the process myself – watching, comparing, listening to fans, digging through stats layers – gave me a much deeper, solid understanding of why these three are tearing it up. Girona’s success isn’t just luck; it’s players like this performing insane roles week after week. Feels good to have done the work properly. Cheers.
